Instant Drink Hot Beverage Container

ABSTRACT

A beverage container composed of a heat conductive outer shell, an insulated inner container, and a lid that together interlock so as to create a channel along the inside wall of the outer shell. The beverage container is designed such that when tilted for consumption, liquid is funneled up from the base of the insulated inner container through the channel to the lip. The heat conductive outer shell cools the beverage in transit through the channel by absorbing the heat and radiating it into the ambient environment.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This nonprovisional utility patent application claims the benefit of the following provisional patent application:

Application #: 61478352

EFS ID: 9941508

Title of Invention: Instant Drink Hot Beverage Container

First Named Inventor: David Scott Hansen

The current application is related in that it seeks nonprovisional patent protections for the same item described in the provisional patent application. I am the inventor of the item and filer of the earlier provisional patent application.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The Instant Drink Hot Beverage Container is the product of modifying and improving my original Hot Beverage Container (U.S. Pat. No. 7,475,792). Both are designed to allow instant consumption of even boiling hot beverages without risk of scalding. My original design suffered from a number of flaws which became evident after testing. First, the spiral cooling feature required the user to suck on a straw like device. That was criticized because it would require users to modify their drinking habits (as most people prefer to sip coffee) and it looked odd. Second, the delicate spiral grooves made the container much more expensive and prone to failure. Finally, and most importantly the tube system failed to radiate sufficient heat to avoid scalding in some tests.

My new design solves all of those problems albeit with significant modification to form and function.

a. Field of the Invention

The invention pertains to the field of hot beverage containers. More particularly, the invention pertains to hot beverage containers that cool the liquid prior to consumption.

b. Description of Related Art

When I have made hot coffee, hot chocolate, or hot tea in the past I have always been annoyed that I had to wait several minutes until my beverage cools down. What should be a pleasant experience is marred by the need to take scalding test sips, or alternatively risk waiting too long and resulting in cold coffee. Having found no reusable mugs with such features, I was challenged to find a way to both keep the beverage hot, yet still allow for comfortable drinking immediately.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,475,792 (an earlier patent of mine) deals with this problem through a spiral tube system. When the tube is sucked on the beverage radiates heat in transit to the top of the mug. The spiral tube system required a sucking motion to drink (both less safe and required a change in drinking habits), proved expensive to manufacture, radiated too little heat to avoid scalding during rapid consumption.

U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,488,173, 6,471,085, 6,318,584, 6,176,390, 5,964,379, 5,961,004, and 5,253,780 display methods of cooling a hot beverage by separating a portion of a hot beverage into cooling chambers where the beverage cools at a more rapid pace. These methods do not allow for immediate and continuous consumption allowed by my invention. Furthermore, they are significantly more complex and expensive to use or manufacture, two of them even incorporating valve systems.

U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,021,490, D360,558, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,054,631, 5,005,717, 4,830,204, D279,250, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,442,948, 4,428,490, D269,659, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,291,814, 3,332,567, 2,885,134, and 2,013,475 display combinations of straws and drinking vessels. However, these designs suffer from one or more of the following deficiencies: lack sufficient straw length to cool a liquid, the tubes are not designed to maximize cooling, the tubes are permanently enclosed making cleaning impractical, require disassembly to clean, the tubes are arranged in vertical loops requiring additional sucking before beverage is consumed, and are not designed to hold hot beverages.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A beverage container which stores a hot beverage in an insulated inner chamber. When the container is tilted the beverage is drawn from a hole in the bottom of the inner chamber and travels along a channel formed between the inner chamber and an exterior shell made of heat conducting materials. The exterior shell has a significant excess mass of heat conducting material which absorbs heat from the beverage as it travels to the lip of the mug for consumption.

The inner chamber is removable for easy cleaning. A cap serves to hold the inner chamber in place and it ensures that when someone sips from one side of the mug they only sip from the cooled beverage that traveled through the heat sink. If someone sips from the other side of the mug they sip directly from the inner chamber without any cooling function thus allowing enjoyment of the beverage when the beverage as a whole has cooled such that the cooling function is no longer necessary.

Through this design, one can have an inexpensive, reusable, and easily cleaned mug that allows immediate and continuous consumption of hot beverages. Furthermore, by allowing immediate consumption without cooling the entire beverage at once, the window of optimal temperature for consumption is expanded.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1: An assembled form of the basic invention in cross section.

FIG. 2: An assembled form of the invention with additional enhancements.

FIG. 3: An isometric computer model of the “outer shell” of the invention.

FIG. 4: An isometric computer model of the “inner core” of the invention.

FIG. 5: An isometric computer model of the assembled form of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The beverage container of the invention is designed to overcome the shortcomings described in the prior art. It is a drinking container formed from three main parts as seen in FIG. 1: An insulated inner core (2), an outer shell (3), and a cap (1).

The outer shell (3) has a base (6), side walls (9), one or more vertical grooves (4) traveling down the side walls (9) into the heat sink (7) located in the base (6), and an open top (13).

The inner core (2) has a base (8), side walls (10), an open top (13), a hole in the base (23), and a protrusion (5) into the heat sink (7).

The cap (1) has an enclosure (13) over the top of the mug, a hole on the cooling side of the mug (14) that draws from the groove (4), a hot side hole on the other side of the mug (12) that draws from the inner chamber (11), and a lip (24).

When assembled (FIG. 1) the invention holds a hot beverage in the insulated inner chamber (11). When tilted toward the side with the groove (4), the beverage exits the hole in the bottom of the inner core (23), comes in contact with the heat sink (7), and continues to cool as it travels up the groove (4) until it passes through the cool side hole in the cap (14) where it can be consumed. This rapid cooling system allows instant consumption of even boiling hot liquids.

When tilted the other direction the beverage directly leaves the insulated inner chamber (11) through the hot side hole in the cap (12). This ensures that when the beverage has cooled sufficiently so that a cooling function is no longer needed, the beverage can still be enjoyed hot.

An alternative embodiment of the invention (FIG. 2) incorporates the same elements as FIG. 1, but additionally includes:

A disc shaped rotatable seal (15) for the cap, with tabs (21) to facilitate turning, and with two holes (16) and (20) which align to the cool side hole in the cap (14) and the hot side hole in the cap (12) respectively;

A hanging flap (18) affixed to a gate structure (17). When tilted toward the cool side the flap hangs open, but when placed upright the flap falls closed against a small protrusion (19) in the base of the inner core;

And a handle (22) comprised of non-heat conducting materials.

The hanging flap (18) on the alternative embodiment keeps the cooled beverage from flowing back through the grooves (4) into the insulated inner core when returned to an upright position. This keeps the unconsumed beverage hot for longer. The rotatable seal allows the container to be sealed for easy transport. The handle allows for handling the mug when the heat sink has absorbed significant amounts of heat.

The container of the invention addresses the shortcomings noted in prior art in the following ways:

First, it allows immediate consumption of boiling hot beverages. When the beverage passes through the grooves (4) it not only radiates heat into the ambient environment, but heat is rapidly absorbed by the heat sink (7). By the time the beverage exits the cool side hole (14) it is still hot but no longer scalding hot. Testing resulting in the discovery of an additional property. As the heat sink warmed up, later sips were cooled to a lesser degree such that every sip was of an ideal temperature.

Second, this invention is cheap to manufacture. The basic form can be made entirely with push-pull manufacturing molds. This distinguishes it from my prior patent which required multiple screw molds.

Third, the invention is easy to clean. When the top is removed the inner core can be removed for easy cleaning.

Accordingly, it is to be understood that the embodiments of the invention herein described are merely illustrative of the application of the principles of the invention. Reference herein to details of the illustrated embodiments is not intended to limit the scope of the claims, which themselves recite those features regarded as essential to the invention. 

1. A beverage container comprising: a) an inner core, comprising: a body having an open top, a bottom, and side walls with an inner surface forming a central chamber for fluids and a cylindrical outer surface having a circumference, the bottom of the inner core being pierced by a hole running from the interior of the core to the exterior; and b) an outer shell surrounding the inner core, comprising: a body having an open top, a bottom, and side walls having an outer surface and an inner surface enclosing a cylindrical central chamber having a circumference fitting tightly to the cylindrical outer surface of the inner core; at least one vertical groove running from the top of the interior wall of the outer shell to the bottom of the interior of the outer shell and continuing under the inner core, said groove being aligned with the hole in the base of the inner core such that when the inner core and outer shell are combined at least one channel is created through which liquid can flow from the interior of the inner core, through the hole in the base of the inner core, up the groove to the top of the exterior shell; and c) a cap covering the open top of both the outer shell and inner core, said cap having at least two holes, one aligned with the channel and the other aligned directly with the central chamber of the inner core.
 2. The beverage container of claim 1, in which the outer shell is made of heat conducting material.
 3. The beverage container of claim 1, in which the outer shell incorporates a heat sink in the form of excess heat conducting materials.
 4. The beverage container of claim 1, in which the outer shell incorporates one or more fins on the exterior surface.
 5. The beverage container of claim 1, in which the vertical grooves on the interior wall incorporate one or more fins.
 6. The beverage container of claim 1, in which the inner core is made of insulating material.
 7. The beverage container of claim 1, further comprising a handle fastened to or built into the outer shell or inner core.
 8. The beverage container of claim 1, in which the inner core incorporates a flow restriction device that allows liquid to flow out of the bottom hole into the grooves but not vice versa.
 9. The beverage container of claim 1, in which the cap incorporates a rotating disc that allows the holes in the cap to be sealed entirely or selectively. 